The present invention relates to the field of software development, and, more particularly, to optimizing the handling of source code requests between a software configuration management (SCM) system and a software integrated development environment (IDE) using ancillary data.
Software development systems often utilize the advantages of an integrated development environment (IDE) to facilitate source code development and a software configuration management (SCM) system to manage the storage of the source code files. Thus, source code files are frequently communicated between the software IDE and SCM system.
In current approaches, communications, specifically requests for source code files, between the software IDE and SCM system occur in a linear request-response manner. When the software IDE requires a source code file, a request for the file is sent to the SCM system. The SCM system then provides that specific source code file and only that source code file to the IDE.
The quantity of requests to the SCM system could be reduced if the SCM system included a capability to provide the software IDE with additional source code data related to the requested file. Such additional source code data could be stored and accessed by the software IDE without generating requests to the SCM system.